How to Clean Kitchen Oven

There are many different styles of kitchen ovens on the market today and one is either electric or natural gas. Several claim to be self cleaning with means that the oven will 'bake off' or 'burn off' the spills so that the cook can come along and wipe out the oven once it has cooled. Other ovens require a powerful oven cleaner and about an hour to allow the foaming agent to work away the baked on food and grease before it can be wiped away.

Step 1: First, make sure the oven is completely cooled. It would be best to perform the cleaning first thing in the morning so you know the oven is cold.

Step 2: Take out the wire racks and put them in either the sink or the bathtub of soapy water and let them soak until the oven has been cleaned. This will help to get some of the grease and dried on food off them.

Step 3: Natural gas ovens are typically 'self cleaning' and all this really means is there is a setting on the oven which allows an individual to turn the oven to this setting and the oven will bake at a really high temperature and most of the food particles will burn or bake off. It might be better to use a product like Easy off.

Step 4: If the oven does have a self cleaning setting and you wish to use it, you should first wipe away all the extra food particles that are left on the bottom of the oven. With an electric oven, be careful not to pull out the electric wire and with a gas oven take care around the small burner in the back.

Step 5: With a product like Easy Off, spray it all over the sides, top and bottom of the oven, being careful not to get any on the electric coil or near the gas. In some cases, there is a shut off valve on the gas stove for cleaning purposes.

Step 6: For really tough, burnt foods, another application of the oven cleaner might be necessary or using something like and SOS pad or Brillo pad.

Step 7: Some people have had success with cleaning their ovens by placing a pan of soapy water on one of the racks before removing them, and turning on the oven and basically boiling the water so that the steam and soap will 'coat' the oven with the soapy water and then when the oven cools, they simply use a damp cloth to wipe everything off the inside of the oven.

Step 8: One should always use a damp cloth, no matter what product they are using, to wash off the inside of the oven and get all the remaining residue from the products off before firing up the oven again so that the smell does no penetrate the food.